Finally, Some Answers in ‘Sharp Objects’
Warning: Spoilers for Sharp Objects episode 4, "Ripe," ahead.
Between cuts of Camille (Amy Adams) drinking straight vodka out of Evian bottles while driving, and flashbacks that do more to foreshadow than explain, this episode seems more concerned about controlling what we don't know than what we learn. For most of the episode, it feels like we stop playing whodunit and focus on how the town's numerous secrets make us feel.
That being said, towards the end of the episode, a piece of information may finally lead to some answers for both viewers and Camille, changing the course of this murder case for everyone.
Last week, we discussed the power women hold in Wind Gap-and what little of it seems to be wielded by our antihero. In this episode, we get to see more of what that looks like when Camille brings Richard (Chris Messina) to past Wind Gap crime scenes in exchange for statements on the record.
"In Wind Gap, every woman gets a nasty label if they don't conform to the rules of engagement," Camille says after they visit the first crime scene, an apparent murder–suicide by a pair of scorned lesbian lovers. He asks her what label she has. "Too many to name."
The second crime scene gives us further insight into Camille's teenage trauma, and how it's affected the way she approaches intimacy. She leads Richard to a clearing in the woods referred to as "The End Zone" that the high school football players use to "have their way" with new ninth graders. Here's the revealing exchange that follows:
Richard: Some people would call that rape, you know?
Camille: Some people would call that consensual, you know?
Richard: Wait, the hell are you talking about? Were you one of the girls?
Camille: If I say yes, you'll think less of me or you'll feel sorry for me.
Richard: No, I'd think those guys took advantage of someone too young to make an informed decision.
Camille: Typical. A boy has sex with five girls and they'd put up a statue in his honor.
Richard: Yeah, double standards exist...but "having your way with somebody," that sounds criminal.
We know, based on her deal with Richard-to show him crime scenes in exchange for answers-that Camille considers what happens in that clearing a crime. With her response, the reporter may be pointing out the town's possible reactions had she and others come forward, but she does seem resistant to the idea that she was a victim at all. Through Camille, Sharp Objects sheds a light on the mixed emotions victims of sexual assault often deal with after their initial trauma: entangled, sometimes contradictory responses that can feel like another attack or punishment, this time from the survivor themselves.
Things only get more jumbled when Camille brings the detective to their third crime scene: the shed from the episode 1 flashbacks, where the two deceased girls were known to play. After asking if something happened to her in the dilapidated room strewn with pornographic imagery and tools that look more like weapons in the shadows, she stalks up to him as if to go for a kiss. When he attempts to meet her lips, she turns her head away, undoes her pants and puts his hand inside. Then, she has a flashback of herself fleeing the shed as a child, blood, and the mutilated bodies of little girls. Is this a way of dealing with her own pain through a controlled experience, or a way of pushing Richard towards giving her answers-or a little of both?
These conflicting emotions don't come out of nowhere. After a chilling confrontation with Adora (Patricia Clarkson) that leaves Camille near tears, her mother gets right up in her face and tells her she smells "ripe." Even after all these years, even consensual, overt sexuality is shameful.
It's not until much later that we get closer to the connection between what happened in that shed when Camille was a child and what is happening in Wind Gap right now. As she shares a drink with John Keene (Taylor John Smith), he tells her about his little sister and she promises not to reveal a violent attack she made against another girl before their move to town. He smiles as he explains that Anne and Natalie were two peas in pod and how he always thought they'd kill each other with how much they were at each other's throats-only Amma (Eliza Scanlen) could make them get along.
Yes-Amma, who until this moment had apparently only known the victims in passing, according to Adora, Amma, and her friends. But John says they were always playing out by that shed in the woods. Something clicks in Camille's head while we struggle to put the pieces together. She's out of the bar like a bat out of hell and seemingly on her way back to the scene of the crime. The shed and another body of a little girl flash on screen in tandem with images of a car following a roller-skating Amma at night. Whatever this means, it feels like we may finally be getting somewhere.
Sharp Objects airs on Sundays at 9 P.M. EST on HBO.
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